Zero growth in first quarter

THE French economy showed zero growth in the first quarter of 2012, official Insee figures show.

On top of this the body has now revised down its growth calculation for the last quarter of 2011, to 0.1% instead of 0.2%. However an overall figure of 1.7% has been maintained for last year.

French national debt (debts owed by state bodies due to loans) is now calculated to have reached 86% of GDP (the market value of all goods and services produced in France in the year) by the end of last year, slightly up on the 85.8% announced before.

Taxes represented 43.9% of GDP, up from a previous estimate of 43.8%. The government deficit last year (the difference between its income and spending, ie. the increase in debt) has been retained as 5.2% of GDP.

At the end of last year the government predicted there would be 1% growth in 2012, a figure it had revised down from a previous 1.75%. Other estimates ranged from the cautious (eg. 0.3% by the OECD) to the more optimistic (eg. the IMF’s 1.4%).

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